


Us, But In Reverse

by PaisleyWraith



Category: South Park
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14129736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaisleyWraith/pseuds/PaisleyWraith
Summary: Kenny McCormick is from a decent enough family, with a nice enough home, he understood wanting to keep appearances neat. But he'll just blatantly ignore the demand to stay away from one of his oldest friends, thanks.





	Us, But In Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by an anon on Tumblr!

Kenny got the text and groaned. Not even a week from the last time it happened. This was getting ridiculous and they were going to have to have a talk. Karen looked at him oddly from across the table, and he tapped the screen of his phone, looking over the text again.

“I’m having company again,” He muttered, and Karen silently got up from the table. She went into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out components as Kenny looked back over the text message.

“Mom and Dad are gone today,” She said softly, checking ingredient lists. “So that’ll make it easier. How strict is his diet? Like, religious-wise?”

“Anything we have is fine,” Kenny said, watching Karen set various ingredients on the granite countertop. “He’s less anal about preparation-”

The grin Karen shot over her shoulder made Kenny turn red and interrupt himself.

“ _Karen_ ,” He said, blaming himself for her twisted humor, “Don’t you dare-”

“Eh, it was a longshot anyway. I’ll make a better joke later.” Karen went to their pantry, the bow in her hair bouncing cheerfully. “Anyway, continue. Your boyfriend and anal preparation?”

“He’s more about ingredients that are banned, not how they’re prepared,” Kenny said all in a rush, not missing the giggle Karen tried to stifle as she flustered her normally chill brother. “And he isn’t my boyfriend, please do not call him that while he’s here.”

“No problem, considering you never let me see him anymore,” Karen pouted, putting the bread in the toaster. “He’s only been your friend forever, Kenny. What, you think he’s a bad influence?”

“Kyle is fine,” Kenny said awkwardly. “I just don’t know how…Look,” He said, tapping his screen again when his phone threatened to turn off. “I’m lucky he trusts me enough for this, it took years to get to this point. I don’t want to push him too hard.”

Karen leaned on the counter, teasing expression morphed into something soft and compassionate. “I understand. Tell him I miss him.”

Kenny smiled at that, sending his sister a grateful look. “He’ll probably appreciate that. I’ll tell him.”

Karen smiled sweetly and went back to rescue the bread from the toaster. Kenny looked back at the message, tapping his screen again.

**Kyle B: Might be over if that’s okay.**

**Kenny M: always ok ky**

Kyle only ever asked to come over in certain situations. Ones Kenny wished he never had to encounter, but honestly he was just grateful Kyle was no longer dealing with this himself. It broke his heart to think of how much he must have suffered on his own. If Kenny could be any kind of support for one of his oldest friends, he would be glad to be there.

Karen set the sandwich in front of Kenny, on one of their nice trays with something to drink and a bag of chips.

“Let me know if I can help, okay?” His little sister said, giving him a squeezing hug. “You’re a good friend, Kenny.”

Was he?

The blond unlocked the back door and took the lunch downstairs, in the furnished, finished basement, where Kenny’s room and a second living room were located, as well as his own bathroom. Except they typically used the second living room for storage rather than any kind of family room. Old exercise equipment, the Christmas tree, clothes he and Karen had outgrown. It was a mess. So was his room.

Kenny picked up what he could, even managing to get his laundry in the washing machine before Kyle finally showed up, sitting on the bottom of the carpeted stairway and watching. Kenny just about jumped out of his skin when he turned around.

Kyle was covered in blood.

After nearly having a heart attack, he realized it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Most of it was dried and seemed to be coming from his face. Kenny dropped the basket on the ground, making his way over as the redhead stood.

“Holy shit, Broflovski.” Kenny cupped his face, and even though Kyle grit his teeth, he let him.

Yes, most of the blood was coming from his nose and lips. It was all over his face, shirt, and hands, and Kyle was already sporting a magnificent bruise and more than a few gravel burns.

“What happened this time?” Kenny groaned, pulled Kyle into the bathroom. “Holy shit, man.”

“Same old bullshit,” Kyle said, hopping up to sit on the sink. He wet the washcloth handed to him and started to scrub his face, wincing as he started too roughly and carefully patting it against the skin afterwards. “I don’t even know who this one was. Might be some new initiation thing, or a joke someone I know is playing on them. Dunno, but he’s not going to be feeling very good. I did at least twice the damage back.” He smiled, wicked and sharp. His green eyes held something vicious in them and Kenny tried to get his mind back on track.

“Ike wasn’t with you this time, was he?” He asked, moving Kyle’s hand away from his face to check his lip. “You busted that pretty good, dude.”

“I thought so,” He said, tongue licking the wound. Kenny’s stomach flipped and now really wasn’t the time. He mentally shook himself as Kyle continued. “And no. He’s at a friend’s house tonight. Which is good. I hate when he’s around and something happens.”

Kenny nodded, showing he was listening. He applied some antiseptic to some of the worse scrapes, thinking. Kyle typically didn’t come for help unless he was going home and didn’t want to scare Ike. Or that was the reasoning he first gave him. Kyle was immensely stubborn and prideful. It made helping him difficult.

So why was he here?

He decided asking would be a terrible idea. Instead, he continued soothing his wounds best he could, pleased that Kyle wasn’t protesting for once. The boy seemed relaxed, actually. The tension and anger that had been in his posture eased, and he closed his eyes as Kenny slathered a salve above his left eyebrow.

Kyle looked tired. Wearing a favorite threadbare sweater, (now ruined) worn jeans, his hair unkempt and frizzy. The wounds only added to it, making him look truly pathetic. Which he’d honestly kill Kenny for even thinking. Kyle might just have wanted company. Kenny’s heart fluttered. He’d be fine with that.

“You look exhausted,” Kenny decided it was okay to say. “Been working hard?”

Kyle looked appeased at the reason for the observation. “I guess. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to take so many advanced classes. That was fucking stupid of me.”

“Eh, you’re smart,” Kenny said, daring to brush his curls out of his face. “You’d be bored in a regular class.”

“I’m not smart,” Kyle muttered, even though his cheeks tinged pink. “I just try harder than everyone else. I got to get out of here, Kenny. I have to land a good job right out of high school. I’ve got to.”

Fuck it. Kenny ran his hand fully through his hair. Kyle tensed, looking at him like he lost his mind, but didn’t comment.

“I know,” The blond said, voice resigned. He ran his hand through his hair a second time, and he swore Kyle leaned into it. “You’re a good brother, Kyle.”

Kyle definitely blushed then, shrugging his shoulders and finally batting his hand away. “Yes. Well, whatever. You’re a good friend.”

Aw. Kenny smiled, knowing that commenting on it might make Kyle take it back, or (somewhat) jokingly toss the soap dispenser at him. Instead, he surveyed Kyle’s dirt-streaked skin, coming to the conclusion that all the bandages in the world wouldn’t help against infection.

“You want to shower?” He said, and Kyle’s expression seemed to perk up. Poor kid couldn’t use running water for showers, and they didn’t have heated water anyhow. “You’re going to have a bad time if you don’t get all the dirt and gravel out of this.”

“I guess,” Kyle said, smiling. “Thanks, Ken.”

Kenny decided against making Kyle wear the same things, pressing one of his own shirts and a pair of shorts into Kyle’s arms along with a towel. Kyle assured Kenny he’d soak his sweater in cold water and it would be fine. Honestly Kenny was a little concerned if Kyle knew how to get blood out of clothes so easily.

He finished cleaning up his room as Kyle showered, deciding to set up the tv in case he wanted to play games of some sort. Make this more casual. And less like Kyle was crawling into his house to get patched up after a brawl and actually eat food for the first time since school.

Kyle survived on what he ate at school. It broke Kenny’s heart. Ike, somehow, always had something to eat in the evenings. Kenny wasn’t sure how he managed it, but he stood by his words. Kyle was a good brother.

More than anything in the world, he wanted to move out and get custody of his brother. Kyle had a pact with Kenny. If he had to move out and away from town to start getting money, Kenny had to look after Ike best he could. Kenny not only agreed, he promised that if it came to court, he’d witness at how shitty their parents were or whatever. Anything.

If it had been Karen, Kenny would be terrified to leave her alone. And she was much older than Ike. The fact that Kyle trusted him with it was humbling, and he’d take it seriously.

They had been friends forever. His parents didn’t like Kyle at all, much less once they got older. Kyle was in physical fights almost weekly, he had a foul mouth and a bad attitude, and yet was so smug and condescending that he might just be the least liked kid in school. Even the revels thought he was a fucking asshole.

The guy didn’t have friends outside Kenny, he’d become parted from their mutual friends Stan when the boys had a falling out. Which, honestly, had been Kyle’s fault. He didn’t date, finding everyone at fault and obnoxious and irritably declaring he’d be single forever.

Kenny, on the other hand, was one of South Park’s angels. A well-off-enough family, okay grades, a lot of charm. He was probably one of the more popular kids in middle school, high school got a bit shaky, but he had no shortage of friends or girlfriends or boyfriends. He was a joker with a raunchy sense of humor, a laid-back and quiet individual that preferred an ‘off-key’ kind of crowd…he’d probably name his two closest friends as Butters Stotch and Kyle Broflovski.

Not that Kyle was a bad person. Kenny disagreed whole-heartedly.

You had to look at Kyle from a different perspective. Yes, he’d kind of classified Kyle as someone else too, back in their first years of high school he started actively avoiding him. Don’t want to mess with the wrong crowd and shit, plus his parents had pressured him. But Kyle was more than his school record or habit of talking with flying fists. He’d opened up to him one night, and Kenny made a few important observations.

The most important, was survival. Kyle fought to survive. As he’d angrily pointed out, he was a bookworm of average height and weight, who was born to a poor (arguably abusive and neglectful) family, with a different religious stance than everyone else, he was one of the less attractive kids in school, and really had no friends to back him up.

A perfect target.

So what do you do? You become someone no one wants to mess with. And by affiliation, no one is going to touch your little brother, either. Not when they’re afraid Crazy-Ass Kyle is going to break their windows and night and beat their ass.

Kyle had two jobs and a perfect attendance record. Perfect grades. He was sharp-witted, clever, and kind. He treated Butters gently when he hung out with him and Kenny, was kind to Karen to the point where his sister genuinely liked him, and no matter how angry or frustrating his little brother was, Ike was singly the most important thing in the world to him.

Kyle didn’t deserve people’s scorn. He was an idiot, sure, and went about this all the wrong way, but Kenny understood. With Ike not being blood related to him, there was a slim chance of Kyle ever seeing him again if they were taken by child protective services. His best chance, especially now that they were seventeen, was to become an adult with a stable job and help his brother. And Kenny would be there to help as much as he could.

Sometimes he thought back to their childhood, when things had been so much more simple. Kyle still had friends and he didn’t know what he went home to every night. Running around playing kingdoms or heroes and being stupid little kids. He was too young for these reminiscent thoughts.

Still. What he wouldn’t give to actually be a hero, like what he dressed up as when Karen was a baby and had bad nightmares. To swoop in and save both Kyle and his brother from what they were stuck in.

But let’s be real. Kyle would never want that, or accept that. The fact he sought out Kenny, that he trusted his friend and relied on him, was probably as much as he’d let him help.

The water was turned off, which meant Kyle was out of the shower. Kenny sat on the newly-made bed, chin propped in his hand.

It made things all the worse, because yes. Kenny had a massive, huge crush on the guy, and had for a good while now. How could he not? Kyle was a badass and incredibly sweet. Not to mention he was one of like….five people Kyle actually liked on the planet. So it hurt personally, too. He cared about what happened to him, and he wasn’t going to let him go after graduation.

One day, when things were better for them, Kenny might try to see if there was any interest on Kyle’s part. There was a suspicion-

Kyle walked through the doorway, looking much better even if his lips was still swollen and the bruising seemed even more prominent. He moved to sit next to Kenny, who handed him Karen’s pesto-cheese-tomato sandwich.

“My sister misses you,” He said solemnly, watching Kyle attack the sandwich like a starved animal.

“Karen is incredibly sweet,” He said, the furrow between his brows disappearing. “I miss her, too.”

Sometimes Kenny wondered if Kyle isolated himself on purpose from people.

“Want to play a game?” He asked, but Kyle shook his head.

“I’ll watch,” he said, around a mouthful of sandwich. “Play something with a storyline.”

Kenny loaded up the console and Kyle finished eating, stacking the dishes nicely on his nightstand. He laid on his stomach afterwards, popping his chin on his crossed arms as he watched.

This was comfortable. Neither spoke, Kyle had his eyes closed before ten minutes passed. Kenny smiled, feeling slightly too fuzzy inside to tease.

“Want to stay the night?” He asked, because damn the consequences. “Since Ike’s not home?”

“If that’s okay with you,” Kyle said against his arms, sleepily.

Kenny snorted. “If I asked, assume it’s okay,” He said, ruffling his hair. “Besides. At this point it would be an inconvenience to drag your sleepy ass outside.”

Without looking, Kyle smacked him on the leg, hard enough to make a sound but not to hurt. Kenny snorted and said nothing.

It was raining outside, it always sounded different in the basement. Since Kyle didn’t seem to mind, Kenny ran his fingers through his hair again, and the boy didn’t even stir. He watched Kyle, feeling a wave of protectiveness wash over him. He’d make sure he was okay. They were close to the end, now. He’d be here for him.

And marvelously, Kyle seemed to be starting to realize that.

“You know,” His tired voice was still muffled against the sleeves of Kenny’s shirt, “You’re my favorite.”

What'd the dork say? Kenny bit his lip, the hand in Kyle’s hair slowly carding through the curls. “Yeah?” He said, trying to sound cool with that and not like a totally infatuated idiot. “Favorite what?”

Kyle’s half-asleep mind seemed to be trying to process that.

“Favorite everything,” He finally seemed to decide on, and Kenny’s heart just about burst into sunshine. He grinned, even thought Kyle couldn’t see it. Alright. That was adorable.

“Cool. You’re mine, too,” He told him, and he seemed to accept that and go back to drifting off.

Kenny had paused the game at this point, abandoning it to watch over his friend. He'd be around to help him, whatever he needed. Kyle nuzzled against him as he fell asleep, Kenny’s fingers weaving through his hair.


End file.
